Femke Herregraven: Corrupted Air

Femke Herregraven (b. 1982 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands; based in Amsterdam) investigates contemporary financial technologies and infrastructures through abstract data, examining their meaning and ecological impact, and creating unique images using an array of mediums and interdisciplinary approaches. Marking her first exhibition in Japan, this exhibition is a rare chance to see Herregraven’s work, especially the internationally acclaimed Corrupted Air – Act VI (2019). In this theatrical installation, which draws on research into catastrophe bonds (a type of investment that yields a return in the event of a natural disaster), three animals that attest to past ecological catastrophes and went extinct are resurrected as digital models to debate the sixth mass extinction that humans are bringing about. Though created before Covid, the title lends the work further nuance for us, having experienced a pandemic in which we lived our lives in fear of an invisible virus in the air, and remain caught in its grip. Along with concept materials for Herregraven’s current project, the exhibition also features A Prelude to: When The Dust Unsettles (2022–23), made as part of the artist-run project On-Trade-Off, which explores wide-ranging issues related to technological and industrial raw materials, financial speculation, and energy from the starting point of the soaring costs of lithium, which is used to make the batteries that power our electronic devices.